


Berserk

by 0bviousLeigh



Series: Yuma is a Girl [3]
Category: Yu-Gi-Oh! Zexal
Genre: Gender or Sex Swap, Other
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2017-08-30
Updated: 2017-08-30
Packaged: 2018-12-21 23:25:54
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 2,612
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/11954889
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/0bviousLeigh/pseuds/0bviousLeigh
Summary: Shark may not have broken the key with his own hands, but he started the chain of events that lead to it breaking, and Yuma's actually going to kill him for that.





	Berserk

**Author's Note:**

> Welcome to my Zexal rewrite that I started for Zexal month on tumblr--an AU in which, first and foremost, Yuma is a girl. Always a girl, born with a V, the whole nine yards. Why? Because the idea wouldn't leave me alone. So [I drew it](http://rainbow-galaxy-supernova.tumblr.com/post/164290621451/zexal-month-day-13-yuma-day-something-ive-been), and I started writing it, and I ran with it.
> 
> This is a rewrite of episodes 1-2. I'm not a duelist, and honestly does anyone even watch the duels? So unless I say otherwise, the duels happen in this AU the exact same way they happen in the show. The dialogue may be different but the cards are the same.

Yuma stares down Ryoga—no, he’s Shark now—as he taunts Tetsuo about the loss of his deck.

“That’s low even for you,” Yuma growls.

Shark looks at her coldly. “You would know, wouldn’t you?”

Yuma feels a hundred curses jump to the tip of her tongue, but she bites them back. “Duel me, and if I win you have to give back Tetsuo’s deck.”

Shark scoffs. “What do I get if I win? Not your crappy deck.”

Yuma tries to think of something she can bargain with. Shark reaches out and snags the key right off her neck, snapping the cord.

“Maybe this?” Shark suggests.

Yuma launches herself at him before either of his lackeys can respond, and she knocks him flat. The key goes flying from his hand, and Yuma vaults over Shark’s prone body to get it, but a passerby steps on it, breaking it in two. One piece goes flying, and Yuma picks up the larger piece, cradling it in her hand. Tears threaten to overwhelm her, but her anger is stronger than her grief.

“You sonuvabitch,” she snarls, whirling towards Shark. He’s picked himself up, his expression blank. Yuma sneers at him. “No wonder they call you Shark, you’re a cold-blooded, fish-eyed, garbage-eating, brainless monster and everyone hates you,” She gets to her feet, gripping the key so tightly that the corners will leave dents in her palm. “What do you get if you beat me? You get me. I’ll do your homework, I’ll bring you food, I’ll lick your goddamn boots in front of the entire school,” she spits, stomping her way over to Shark. “Name your prize,” she growls, getting up in Shark’s face. “You won’t be winning.”

Shark bares his teeth. “Saturday. Mall. 10 AM.”

“Maybe by then you’ll learn how to form complete sentences again,” Yuma tells him.

Shark walks off, his lackeys behind him, and Kotori comes flying at Yuma, her eyes bright and watery.

“Yuma!” She squeaks, her voice shaking, “What the heck?!”

Yuma deflates. She opens her palm and looks at her broken pendant. Tears sting her eyes once more. Her parents would have been ashamed of her for the things she said, for getting in Shark’s face like that, someone she used to be friends with…not that Shark seemed to remember.

“He yanked it right off my neck,” Yuma mumbles.

“Even so!” Kotori whispers, “You, like…you knocked him flat!” She hesitates. “I mean it was kind of awesome but, all that stuff you said!”

“I should have said worse,” Yuma says.

“You should take it back!” Tetsuo cries, making Yuma and Kotori jump. He looks furious. “All that stuff about licking his boots? Yuma, what if he really wins? What if he hurts you?”

“Who cares?” Yuma snaps. “I’m not helpless! I’ve stood up to him before and I can do it again!”

‘Not with this deck,’ a voice whispers to Yuma. Yuma tells that voice to shut up.

“I’m not letting you do this for me,” Tetsuo says, and Yuma snaps once more.

“It ain’t just about you anymore!” She hollers, her throat tight with tears. “He put his hands on my key! This thing is, it’s important to me and because of him…!”

She cuts herself off. She’s the one who pushed Shark and made him drop the key. She’s the one who challenged him. In the end, maybe it’s more her fault than Shark’s.

“Aw, forget it,” Yuma says. She grabs her backpack and starts walking home. She holds the key to her chest and keeps her head down as she cries.

 

 

Yuma debates skipping school on Friday. She feels miserable and she looks bad enough to convince Akari that she’s sick. She flip-flops between being appalled at what she said to Shark and berating herself for not telling him off worse by dragging Rio’s name into it and really making him ashamed of himself. But that would be too cruel, after all Rio would have been ashamed of Yuma’s behavior as well.

In the end, Yuma drags herself to school. She hangs the broken key around her neck, a reminder of her shame. Her big mouth has always gotten her into trouble. She’s quiet all day, brushing off people who ask her what’s wrong and who dare her to do things.

 _‘Kattobingu,’_ she thinks to herself, staring down at the broken key. What would dad want her to do? Probably apologize. Would he want her to go ahead and duel Shark? Well, she did say that she would, and she should never back down. But it was a challenge made in anger.

 _‘Anger is the path to the dark side,’_ she thinks, and she giggles.

“Tsukumo Yuma!” Her math teacher yells, “What is so funny about the quadratic formula?”

“Your two looks like a Z,” Yuma answers, and a few students giggle. She really should stop heckling her teachers while she’s at it.

Kotori keeps trying to cheer Yuma up, but even her lame jokes can’t make Yuma smile. On the walk home Kotori tries to tell Yuma about a funny cartoon, but Yuma only half listens.

“Oye!” Tetsuo calls. The two of them turn as he skates over to them. “Yuma…are you going to the mall tomorrow?”

Yuma shrugs. “Might as well.”

“You shouldn’t,” Tetsuo says. “I meant what I said yesterday, with that bet Shark could really do something to hurt you. It’s my fault you got into this mess, I don’t want you getting hurt because of me.”

Yuma scowls. “Hey, don’t think too highly of yourself, I wasn’t even thinking about you when I challenged him, I was…” she cuts off and grabs the key. “I used to know Shark and he’s just…he’s not the person I know him to be. Part of me wants to apologize to him, the other part of me wants to beat him and try to knock some humility into him. I can’t do either of those things if I wuss out.”

“Nobody has to know,” Tetsuo argues. “We can fake something to get you out of it. Shark was a pro and you’ve barely been using that deck for half a year, you’re not on his level.”

“Bullcrap!” Yuma cries, “You say that like it’s a bad thing! I’m grateful to not be on his level, it means I’m doing something with my life that’s better than winning cards in back alleys. The operative word in your sentence is ‘was,’ he was a pro, and there’s a reason he’s not one anymore. I’m gonna duel him tomorrow, and whether I win or lose I’ll be proud of myself for playing an honest game for something I believe in.”

Kotori looks touched, and Tetsuo’s expression softens. He rubs the back of his neck and sighs, “I thought you’d say that.” He reaches into his pocket and holds out a tiny piece of metal.

Yuma gasps and holds out her palm. “Where did you find it?” She asks as Tetsuo drops the piece of the key in her palm. He doesn’t answer her.

At home, Yuma glues the key back together. It’s a crappy fix, but it’s okay.

 

 

Yuma has a weird dream that night about a crumbling path, a huge door, and a voice that asks her if she’ll trade what’s precious to her for a great power. When she wakes up, landing hard on the floor in a cold sweat, she blames the dream on a combination of anxiety and too much to eat.

Yuma is early to the mall. Kotori shows up five minutes after she does, Tetsuo behind her. Kotori looks like she hasn’t slept a wink, and Yuma instantly feels like crap for putting her through this.

“You guys didn’t have to come,” Yuma tells them.

Kotori puts her hands on her hips. “Yeah, we did. We’re not letting you go through this alone.”

“Maybe he won’t show,” Tetsuo says hopefully.

But he does show, him and his two lackeys.

“You ready?” Shark calls to her.

Yuma stands across from him. “Why can’t you just be a nice person and give Tetsuo his deck back? What are you even going to do with it?”

“You know perfectly well what I’m going to do with it,” Shark says dryly. “Same thing I do with all crappy decks.” He activates the AR field.

“If it’s so crappy then why bother?” Yuma snaps. She takes a deep breath. “You and I both know it’s not going to be worth a lot. It’s not even like you need the money!”

“What is she talking about?” Tetsuo asks. Kotori hushes him.

Shark glares at her. “Just get on with it, I’m giving you the first move.”

Yuma growls as she draws her cards. “Why are you being like this?” She yells. She sets Zubaba Knight on her field. “If I can snap out of my misery then so can you! I end my turn.”

Of course, she forgot to summon her Knight in defense mode, so Shark wipes it out and deals her damage. It’s a stupid mistake, one Yuma is too experienced to make, but she’s distracted. Something is weird about Shark, he’s always been more of a leader than a follower, but he’s been in the same duel gang for two years and he’s still just a foot soldier. If he’s going to be a delinquent, he could at least try harder, so why isn’t he?

Yuma fumbles her next turn too, and she wonders if she should loose on purpose, just to find out what Shark would do if she did. What’s the worst he can do? She knows she said she’d lick his boots in front of the whole school, and yeah her pride would take a blow but she can handle it. Maybe he wouldn’t do anything to her at all. Maybe if she lost, it would bring something out in him to remind him of their friendship.

Shark draws a card. Yuma can’t stand the look on his face, so empty and bored. He used to like dueling, he used to love his cards and like coming up with new strategies. Now he acts like this is something he can’t wait to be done with.

Yuma stomps her foot. “What’s the matter with you?!” She yells, and Shark actually looks surprised. “Don’t you know that you’re better than this?”

“What’s she talking about?” One of Shark’s gangmates asks him.

Shark looks momentarily intrigued, and Yuma seizes on it. “You don’t have to live like this, I can help you get out if that’s what you want! And…and look at us!” She can feel the desperation creeping into her voice. “You know Rio wouldn’t have wanted this for us!”

Shark’s face changes—now he looks furious. “Don’t you talk to me about what she would want!” He screams. Something flashes in his eyes, and before Yuma can try to talk him down, she feels like she’s blacking out.

Suddenly, Yuma is back in her dream from last night, staring at a huge door. ‘Great power,’ a deep voice whispers.

Power…power to what? To change things? Yuma looks in her hand, where she’s holding her key. It’s inexplicably fixed, not even a scratch where it broke. Yuma looks back up and sees a giant padlock, with a hole shaped like her key.

Yuma’s heart soars. “KATTOBINGU!” She screams as she shoves the key into the lock. There’s a flash of white light, and the scene vanishes, leaving Yuma back at the mall. She’s lying flat on her back and staring at the sky, with a pain in her shoulders that tells her she’s fallen quite hard.

“What the heck?” Yuma cries, sitting up, but nobody hears her as Shark yells that he’s building the overlay network. Once more Yuma is knocked flat, and this time when she sits up she’s staring at a monster.

The monster that Shark summons is unlike anything Yuma has ever seen, or heard of. Numbers 17…Yuma gapes at it, feeling like she’s drowning, and then she hears a voice say calmly, “You can win.”

Yuma looks in the direction of the voice and sees a being floating above the sidewalk. Its silvery-blue body is unclothed and covered in darker markings and raised gems.

“You can win,” it says again.

Yuma shrieks, _“WHAT THE HELL ARE YOU?!”_

Kotori calls to her, “Yuma, what’s wrong?!”

“Why are you yelling at nothing?” Tetsuo asks.

“N-nothing?!” Yuma says, looking over at them. She stands up and gestures wildly towards the being next to her. “Can’t you guys see it?! There’s something here, like a duel monster looking thing but it talked to me and I didn’t summon it and neither did Shark and it’s really weird looking you guys, it’s like naked or something can’t you see it??”

Tetsuo shakes his head. “She’s lost her mind from fear.”

“I’M NOT SCARED!!!” Yuma cries. She glances at the being next to her, and she touches her duel gazer. “Did this piece of crap malfunction?” She lowers it slightly and peers over the glass, but the being is still there. She lets out a high-pitched squeal. “IT’S A GHOST!”

“A ghost?!” Kotori and Tetsuo ask.

“That’s not my name,” the being says, deadpan. “My name is Astral. Though for the moment, that seems to be all I can remember.”

“A NAKED AMNESIAC GHOST!” Yuma screams, covering her face and jumping up and down. “Why does this shit only happen to me?!”

“PULL YOURSELF TOGETHER YUMA!” Kotori yells, “You’ve got to win this!”

“I am pulled together!” Yuma yells back, uncovering her face. She gives herself a shake, “Okay, gotta calm down. Just ignore this thing, yeah I’m sure it’ll go away.”

Across the field, Shark calls out to her. “If you’re done yelling at nothing, I’d like to get on with this duel,” he says, setting a card facedown.

“Something about Numbers,” the being—Astral—mumbles. “They’re important to me…yes, they contain my memories!”

“Memories in Numbers?” Yuma squeaks at Astral.

“Yes,” Astral says. “I must duel to regain my memories from these Numbers!”

“You duel?” Yuma asks. She points at Astral and screams, “A DUELING NAKED GHOST!”

“A dueling naked ghost?!” Kotori and Tetsuo echo.

“It’s my turn!” Astral cries.

“IT’S MY TURN!” Yuma yells at Astral. She waves at Astral like they’re an annoying gnat buzzing around her head, and she attacks the Number monster, but even though she deals Shark damage, the monster remains on the field.

“Numbers can only be destroyed by Numbers,” Shark tells her coldly.

“Shit!” Yuma cries, “I don’t have a Number card!”

“Don’t be too sure of that,” Astral says. They look down at their hand. “I feel weak…” they mutter. “You, I need your help. I need that Number card, if I am to lose against it, I have a feeling I’ll cease to exist.  I need you to win against this monster.”

“I’ve been trying to,” Yuma mumbles. “If you would mind your own business maybe I could win!”

“Let me help you,” Astral insists.

“That’s cheating!” Yuma hisses.

“Listen to me!” Astral cries, “If you lose to this monster, I will die!”

That gives Yuma pause. She looks up at the being and notices that indeed, they seem to be quite faint. Yuma’s not sure that Astral is a real thing, but on the off chance that they are…does she want to be responsible for their death?

“Okay,” Yuma gasps, feeling her heart start to race. “Okay, I can do this…we can do this. Tell me what to do.”

This better be good.


End file.
